1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to receptacles for displaying and dispensing papers, such as advertising circulars. The receptacle is to be mounted to a fixed surface and remains in place so that members of the public passing by the receptacle may take copies of the papers or the like made available. Merchants of all sorts will benefit from the invention, since their services and wares will be readily advertised at diverse locations proximate foot traffic.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Sales circulars, brochures, and similar promotional literature is widely employed to advertise services and wares. Such literature is made available in many ways, such as by direct mailings, hiring individuals to hand out the literature to passers by encountered on foot, by placing the literature on motor vehicles in parking lots, and by depositing the literature in receptacles in stores and other structures exposed to the public.
Direct mailings and hiring individuals entail considerable costs, especially when undertaken on large scale. Passing out literature on motor vehicles both requires manpower, and also risks creating a public nuisance, in that owners of the vehicles may carelessly discard the literature immediately, thereby littering the parking lot. Beyond the forementioned drawbacks, there is no assurance that the literature is being distributed to persons who are actually interested in the information being conveyed by the literature.
Many receptacles for dispensing literature and papers have been proposed in the prior art. Examples are seen in U.S. Pat. No. 501,279, issued to Richard D. Knight on Jul. 11, 1893, U.S. Pat. No. 922,272, issued to Frederick J. Garrod on May 18, 1909, U.S. Pat. No. 1,155,791, issued to John L. Cabell on Oct. 5, 1915, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,302,774, issued to Joseph Zalkind on Feb. 7, 1967. The subject devices of these patents illustrate boxes, that is, receptacles which are parallelepipeds having openable closures.
Knight and Zalkind illustrate closures providing doors hinged to swing away from the parallelepiped to reveal contents. Knight utilizes otherwise idle ends of the side walls to promote retention of the door in the closed position. The present invention has a spring urging the door closed, but the spring of the present invention is a coil spring arranged to exert force urging the door to swing back to the closed position. By contrast, the ends of the side walls in Knight resiliently hold the door closed by friction once manually placed in the closed position.
None of the prior art inventions cited show a full front flange and weather hood, nor interior pocket carried with the door, both being shown in the novel brochure holder. Also, none of these prior art patents shows a downwardly turned handle spaced apart from the front panel of the hinged door, a floor inclined to promote drainage of rain and the like, and a spring biased rear panel forming the rear wall of the pocket, the rear panel acting to hold displayed brochures in an upright position, the rear panel having a relief to afford ready finger access to the brochures.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.